Street Truck

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Never knew that about certain wheels and tires not going on a truck. With Bill on just getting the correct wheels and tires and having them mounted. Then just pick them up in your truck! lol

[JeremyJ]

I plan on putting some aftermarket wheels and tires on this thing eventually, so I'm not worried about it at the moment. I've been eyeing Viper wheels, since they share the same bolt pattern. They require some spacers to clear the suspension, but they look sooooooo good. Some day.

[JeremyJ]

I caved in and ordered a new clutch master/slave setup. Like I said previously, they're a sealed unit, so they have to be changed together. I was talking with one of my old SRT buddies and he was having the same issue as me with his trans leaving him stuck in neutral occasionally, so he changed out the master/slave and it cured it. I hope this does the trick. The install isn't terrible, but it's not fun, either. I just hope I can drive the truck without getting stalled in traffic again.

[JeremyJ]

In my typical style, I'm planning to paint the wheels on the truck until I can afford something nicer. I have some options. Let me know what you guys think.











The grey would be either gunmetal or black chrome. The black chrome paint is a multi-step process and I'm wary of it going on unevenly and creating dark spots. I'm leaning toward a more conservative black with a red stripe. The stripe would be reflective, which would look cool at night. A lot of motorcycle guys do it. The blue would be most unique. I could also do solid black and try out some tire stickers. They make "Kumho" stickers that would look pretty cool. They're expensive, though and I'm not super stoked about the tires in general. Anyway, I'm open to opinions.

[occasional demons]

I'm leaning towards the grey, but then I like the stock silver.




Looking at Foresters, I despise the Sport trim...

Let's face it, I'm old and fuddy....

[Midnight_Rider]

Mopar blue.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

I wouldn't do the bright colored ones unless your truck was lowered. They all look good. Up to you to decide. If it was my truck, I would do the grey

[JeremyJ]

Oh, it will definitely be lowered.

Another color I considered was bronze. I always liked that on black.

[JeremyJ]

I got around to installing a new clutch master/slave setup in the truck this weekend. Here's a picture of the new reservoir and if you look closely, you might be able to see the master tucked under the brake master cylinder. It's a snug fit.



It's really tight against the wheel well in that area. I had to jack up the truck, take the front tire/wheel off, and remove the fender liner. Then I unbolted part of the inner wheel well and had to pull some sheet metal out of the way to snake the master in and out of place. Here, you can get an idea of the forest of brake lines and electrical that I had to weave the slave down through in order to get into position on the trans. Not easy or fun.



I zip-tied the lines as far away from the exhaust manifold/cat as possible. I might add some extra heat shielding at some point to make sure nothing melts. It gets pretty close to the cat, down by the frame rail. The install was a major pain in the ass. It really should have been a two-person job, but I did it almost completely by myself. The best part is that I finally buttoned everything up, cleaned the driveway, went to start it, and... nothing. Not even a click. After trying to jump it and fooling around with the clutch switch, I remembered that the rod that connects the clutch pedal to the master had a plastic washer-like spacer on it that I didn't transfer over to the new unit. This created its own set of issues because I couldn't remove the old rod from the master; it was really stuck in there. So I took a hacksaw to the rod and removed the spacer that way. Then I had to figure out how to transfer it onto the new rod, which had already been inserted into the new master and wasn't designed to be removable. I took the trusty hacksaw and cut a small, wedge-shaped slit in the side of the plastic spacer, so it would "click" back onto the new rod. It took an extra set of hands, but it worked. The spacer firmly clicked into place around the rod, while maintaining its structural integrity. I hopped up into the driver's seat, turned the key, and... success. It turned right over.

So far, it seems to have cleared up the shifting issues I've been having since the trans was replaced. I've driven it twice so far and it never left me stuck in neutral. The shifting is nice, too. Fewer clunks and better engagement. I can actually heel-toe downshift now, without grinding. I guess the hydraulics were just plain worn out. There were no leaks that I could see, so it just goes to show that the master/slave setup can be bad without the usual visible signs.

[occasional demons]

Looks to be as much fun as changing the crank sensor on my XJ. I got to do that three times.

I think crank sensors on those are like the cam sensors on NGC neons...


One good thing about the Subie is most things are on the topside, and easily accessible. The only PITA is the spark plugs.

The sensors are all mostly visible/accessible though I have yet to actually change one. The master/slave are right on top, and the starter is beside that.

[JeremyJ]

I had to do the crank sensor change on my XJ once. Been there. Lost a socket.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Sounds like a whole lot of headache. Glad you got it all buttoned up though and it shifts well! Hopefully you got to enjoy a nice beer after that one!

[JeremyJ]

Nothing exciting here, but I did install shorter bump stops over the rear axle. The gap between the axle and frame is going to be shortened by five inches, so a low profile bump stop is necessary. I'm likely going to do a c-notch in the future, but this should help for a little while.

You can see the old versus new, here:

[MyNeonSaysHi]

So truck is getting lowered inches???

[JeremyJ]

It's getting a 4/5 drop (4" in the front and 5" in the back) installed this spring. It's about as low as I can go without notching the frame.

[JeremyJ]

The drop kit has officially been ordered. It's going to take a few weeks to get here (thanks, COVID!). Not that it matters, since I'm waiting for nicer weather to install it. I'm excited anyway. It's going to look sooooo much better.

[occasional demons]

That's a few weeks of soaking everything with penetrating oil....

[MyNeonSaysHi]

^LOL

Going to look killer when lowered!

[JeremyJ]

The shocks showed up. I had a few options here. There are a bunch of non-adjustable shocks and then there are ones with adjustable rebound/compression. The adjustable shocks are more than $200 each and I felt they were unnecessary for my application. If I was racing this thing, I would have spent the extra cash, but it's just a cruiser. I went with the second nicest non-adjustable shocks. They are tuned for "street performance". The only non-adjustables that are better, cost more than twice as much, so these made sense.

The fronts (pictured) are really short and the rears are a little long. I'm going to use shock extenders for the rear to make sure they don't bottom out. Still waiting on the drop kit.

[JeremyJ]

I finally got my hands on a 3M eraser wheel. I used it to finish the pinstripe removal job that I started a couple of weeks ago. It performed great and the pinstripe is now completely gone, except for a faint ghost of where it used to be.

Before:


After:


The truck looks so much cleaner without the stripes.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

nice! Did you put those headlights on? Think about going back to stock style? I like the stock ones with the amber lower.

[JeremyJ]

They came on the truck. I'm still debating what to put in their place. There are some nicer black housing headlights available, but you know my history with those. I may just go OEM style. The problem with those is that the light output is terrible. It's one of those things I'll need to figure out down the road.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Right on, makes sense. Yes, stock has horrible output, remember seeing them on the road growing up.. nice faint haze!

[JeremyJ]

Minor update. I received an LED third brake light yesterday. This really helps smooth out the rear end a bit. It kind of disappears from about twenty feet back, which is perfect. It doesn't look very bright in the picture, but I can assure you the output is more than adequate in person. It looks great. Very bright at night.

[occasional demons]

Much cleaner than stock!

[MyNeonSaysHi]

dig the brake light. You see hoovies garage on youtube got a 8k mile 2000 Dakota R/T? Looks brand new

[JeremyJ]

I saw the thumbnail, but didn't watch the video. It looks like a super clean truck. I'm jealous.

[JeremyJ]

My windows have been really slow to go up or down and sometimes the button didn't work at all. The passenger window was the worst. I was afraid to roll it down at all because it didn't want to roll up. I started watching videos on how to replace the motor in the door and prepping myself for power window work (which I've never done before). Then I got smart and decided to try the buttons on the passenger door. The window went up and down without issue. That means the worn out switch panel on the driver's door was malfunctioning. It looked pretty haggard anyway. So I ordered a new switch panel and installed it. It was easy.

Remove the panel and unplug the two connections.


Compare the new one to the disgusting old one. Reverse the above process.


Turn on the power and bask in the glory of new buttons that function properly.


Both windows are still a little slow, but they function. I'm probably going to remove the door cards and grease the tracks. That should keep them operable for a while longer.

Still waiting on the drop kit. They were out of stock and needed to make more kits before they could ship mine out. It's been almost a month. I'm growing impatient.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

So they go up fine when you use the passenger side? Must not be getting proper power from the driver side switch panel. Nice item to replace known how often that gets used. Hope you get your drop kit soon bro. Lots of people ordering stuff now!

[JeremyJ]

Yeah, the passenger buttons are in fine working order and both windows go up and down without hesitation now.

A lot of car parts places are out of stock on everything right now. It's weird. All this tax return and stimulus money is flowing like crazy. Of course, mine is no exception!